Greenwood

Roll into Greenwood along Grand Boulevard and you'll see the town's finest manor homes; neoclassical and Tudor style architecture (and more) made from brick and stone and decorative iron. Greenwood was a economic boom town with cotton factories along the river banks, thriving well into the 20th century.Segments of the award winning movie The Help were filmed in Greenwood; those grand homes are their own characters in the movie. Now Greenwood's elegant opera house is the headquarters for Viking Range Corp., the premier builder of American kitchen appliances. Viking has a cooking school in Greenwood; stay over and take a class in real Mississippi cooking.

Outside of Greenwood, on Money Road, stop at blues icon Robert Johnson's grave, towards the back of the cemetery next to the Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church. Further out, the ruins of Bryant's Grocery, the site where a young black man named Emmett Till was lynched for allegedly flirting with the white proprietress. A Freedom Trail marker on the site tells the somber story this event that galvanized the Civil Rights movement in Mississippi.

For a quiet night under a starry Delta sky, stay in a cozy, neat as a pin, sharecropper shack at Tallahatchie Flats.Or, for luxury southern style, there's The Alluvian, a boutique hotel famous for its Sunday brunch. Carry a cup of steaming coffee to the Keesler Bridge and watch the sunrise over the Yazoo’s dark waters. Stroll the brick streets and soak in the gracious old buildings and the welcoming stores. Grab a bite at Delta Bistropub or Turnrow Books, do a bit of shopping to dress for your elegant evening at Lusco’s or Giardina’s. Relax with a nightcap and some music in the Alluvian lobby or head out across the Delta for a taste of deep down Blues.